FC Barcelona midfielder (and one time Manchester United transfer target) Arturo Vidal admitted yesterday that his side was distracted by their UEFA Champions League tie with the Red Devils after their shock draw with Huesca.
Vidal was in the first team on Saturday for a La Liga fixture that saw Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez benched, and the Blaugranes as a whole put in a very uninspired effort. Barca’s players were looking ahead to Tuesday night’s home game against United, the second of two legs in the quarterfinal tie.
“We were all thinking about Manchester — those that were here and those that stayed at home,” the Chilean international told reporters after the game.
“It is going to be difficult, but we got a good result over there. The Champions League is everyone’s dream.”
Barcelona head into the midweek fixture up 1-0 on aggregate, due to the result of last week’s encounter. It’s fair to say that United were also thinking about this tie, instead of their weekend domestic fixture. United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted that his side was off, and extremely lucky to have gotten away with a 2-1 win yesterday at home against West Ham United.
Solskjaer even mentioned Barca, saying that had United been facing the Catalan club, instead of West Ham, they wouldn’t have been able to escape with a win.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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